Present
by sweetheartbreaker
Summary: Can they forget what happened in the past? What could happen in the future? Sakura closed her eyes. It doesn't matter. All that matter was what was happening now.


**Present**

_This is to celebrate the birthday of the Uchiha Sasuke. Happy birthday Sasuke. I will always be your fan girl. :)_

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She was extra early today, Sakura thought when she entered the classroom. It was still empty, given that Sakura came 30 minutes before time. She just laughed it off as she sat on her chair. It was a special day after all. It was Sasuke's birthday.

No, scratch that. It was her _boyfriend's_ birthday.

She smiled at that thought. Yes, she was officially the Uchiha's girlfriend. They hadn't been together for a long time, just a couple of weeks. This was the first time Sakura would celebrate Sasuke's birthday as his girlfriend, and she was determined to make it extra special.

She took out a neatly wrapped box from her bag, feeling giddy with excitement. Just wrapping this present took her almost 2 hours to wrap. Everything had to be perfect. It's her _boyfriend's_ birthday, after all.

She placed the present on her lap and took out a pen and her notebook from her bag. She decided she could use the time to study for her subjects. One can never be too smart.

The moment she looked up from her notes, the room was already bustling with noise and laughter. It was already filled with students chattering with each other, not bothering to check the time. Sakura placed a hand on her lap to find the box still sitting there safely. She smiled as she closed her notes. Today will be a good day.

Iruka-sensei walked inside the room, hushing the noise to an excited silence. He smiled at the class and greeted them and they all shouted an equally enthusiastic greeting back. He opens a long notebook, and calls the last names of his students one by one.

After a bunch of other names, finally, "Haruno?" he called.

Sakura raised her left hand and answered a quick but firm "Hai!" She didn't dare look up at Sasuke's table. He would be expecting something from her, she was sure. But today she was going to play hard-to-get before giving him his present. She laughed to herself. She just couldn't wait.

After a bunch of other last names, Iruka-sensei called, "Uchiha?"

Sakura still didn't dare to look to where he was sitting as she waited for his usual lazy drawl to echo in the room. Instead, a long silence pressed on.

Iruka-sensei, whose eyes were glued on his notebook, looked up for the first time. Sakura's resolve crumbled and followed the gaze of her teacher, to a single empty chair in the middle of the classroom. "Sasuke?" he called again, waiting for Sasuke to answer. The teacher shrugged and marked something on his notebook. "Absent," he announced. Then continued to his job like nothing happened. "Uzumaki?"

But Sakura was still staring at the empty chair. Sasuke couldn't be absent. He must just be late, although that wasn't really something to count on since Sasuke was never late.

She let that sink in. Sasuke was absent. On his birthday. And he didn't even tell her.

A bubble of anger rose to her chest. Did his family go on a vacation? Did he have a special guest on his apartment today? He hadn't mentioned anything to her.

It wasn't as if she tried contacting him, too. Sakura tried to maintain distance between her and Sasuke the past week so she can make sure he would be surprised on his birthday. That included not calling or texting him as usual as she did when they got together.

Now, she wasn't so sure it was a good idea. Maybe she had gone too far.

She swallowed a lump on her throat. If Sasuke was angry with her, he had the right to. She had been stupid not to think this thoroughly enough. She exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding and looked up to see Iruka-sensei distributing their papers from last week's exam.

Her teacher caught her gaze and he smiled as he said, "Congratulations, Sakura. You topped this exam," and held out her paper.

She took the present from her lap and quickly placed it inside her bag before she stood up from her seat and walked towards her teacher, with gazes of different emotions following her. She took the paper with a smile that she forced on to her face, and walked back to her chair, not even registering what just happened.

Sasuke was absent on his birthday.

She looked at her paper and found a red A marked on the top right corner of her paper. She folded the paper on her desk, trying to think of happy thoughts. She studied so hard for this exam, going through nights without sleeping just to memorize terms and formulas. She should feel accomplished right now, now that she aced the exam.

"Uchiha Sasuke ranked second in class, just for you information," Iruka-sensei told the class and placed Sasuke's paper on his desk then proceeded on giving back the papers to other students again.

Moments later, Sakura knew that they were discussing the answers from the exam. But she couldn't concentrate at all. The only thought that was running through her head was that Sasuke was absent on his birthday and was probably angry at Sakura, too.

A lot of the other girls shared her sentiments. A lot had probably readied their presents for Sasuke as well, chocolates and love letters, teddy bears and roses and all ridiculous gifts fan girls could give. As Sakura walked through the hallway of the school that day, she could almost smell the scent of broken-heartedness in the air. Sasuke was absent on his birthday.

Sasuke told her once that he secretly liked receiving presents on his birthday from his fan girls. He hated it on random days, especially when his locker would be filled by useless goodies, but on his birthday he thought it was special. It was his day, after all. He could use a little pampering on his special day. Sakura called him a brat then. Sasuke called her annoying. Sakura suspected he was hinting something to her that day. That's why she wanted this day to be extra special.

That afternoon, when she had convinced Ino to walk home without her, she thought that she might at least visit Sasuke's apartment. Ino had been extremely worried a while ago, when she noticed that Sakura was not celebrating her aced exam. Sakura had to persuade her that nothing was wrong and that she just had a rough morning, which she did.

She arrived on his doorstep a few minutes before the sun was down. She knocked on the door twice, ears craning to listen to any sound that may tell her that someone was inside the house. Nothing. Sakura, desperate as she is, took the duplicate key Sasuke gave her and opened the locked door. It creaked in protest as she pushed it open.

She was welcomed by the sight of his freshly cleaned living room. Someone had done the cleaning for him, she thought. Sasuke didn't know how to clean. His parents must have sent some maids. If her hunch was right and they were on a family vacation on Sasuke's birthday, they had to keep even this apartment clean while they were away.

Sakura was about to leave when she heard a sound. It was a rough sound, an ugly sound. A cough. And it sounded like it came from Sasuke's room.

Sakura closed the door behind her and locked it tight. She walked to Sasuke's door and knocked. No answer. But she was sure. He was here. He had to be here. She was sure she heard a cough so she held the knob and twisted.

When the door was not standing to block her sight anymore, she didn't understand what she saw. Sasuke was lying on his bed, breathing a bit unevenly, with a handkerchief on his forehead.

She tried to push the door closed as quietly as she could, but se had underestimated her strength and the door closed with a light _thud_. Sasuke stirred from his bed, and Sakura stood frozen where she was.

Sasuke shifted so he was facing the door and opened his right eye. "Sakura?" he murmured.

Sakura nodded and slowly walked towards him. "Hi," was the only thing she could think of saying right now.

He opened both of his eyes and smiled. "Hey," he said.

"You weren't at school," she explained without the question being asked. "I was worried, and I didn't know... and I had a key..."

Sasuke laughed softly, like he was too exhausted to do anything more. "I caught a bug," he told her. Her eyes must have widened in worry because he immediately added. "Just fever. Nothing to worry about. The doctor said I'll be up and going tomorrow."

Sakura couldn't explain the relief she felt that moment. But something was still wrong. "It's your birthday," she said.

Sasuke nodded, closing his eyes. "It is," he agreed.

"I wanted it to be special. I wanted to surprised you. I had everything planned..."

Sasuke looked up when she trailed off. Sakura pressed the back of her palms to her cheeks to somehow cover up for what was happening. But it was too late. "Don't cry," he said. "It's not your fault, Sakura. And I still am surprised you came here so that must count for something, right?" he said and offered his hand.

Sakura put on a smile. She was still going to make today special. No matter how short the time left is. She took his hand. It was hot to touch. She squeezed it before saying, "I have a present."

Sasuke's eyes lit up.

"It's in my bag," she said and gestured towards their intertwined hands. Sasuke let go of her hand and let her rummage through her bag. She revealed a small box with a crumpled ribbon which she handed him sheepishly. "I didn't know what else to give someone who already had everything so..."

Sasuke gingerly untied the ribbon and took the wrapper off, careful that he didn't tear it open. He smiled as he pulled up something soft from the box. After a few moments, Sasuke said, "Thank you." He squeezed it before handing it to her.

Sakura took it, a bit confused. She examined her handiwork. It was a small red pillow. But she had managed to crochet Sasuke and her with a _I love you_ embroidered at the side. She'd poured her heart out in it, and she hoped that Sasuke appreciated it.

"Please put it on the table," he pointed to the table near is closet. "Beside the photograph," he added.

Sakura walked and saw the photograph. It was him and her. Their first picture on the day they started dating. They were at Starbucks then, studying together when things turned out far from Sakura's expectations. It was the happiest moment of her life thus far. She stared at it in wonder, a small smiled playing on her lips, and placed his pillow, _their_ pillow beside the framed photo.

"Sakura?" Sasuke called.

Sakura turned to see Sasuke had pushed the covers off himself and shifted to one side of the bed. She turned red as a tomato. Good thing that Sasuke's eyes were closed so he didn't see.

"Can you please climb the bed for me? At least stay until I fall asleep again," he said.

Sakura smiled and obeyed. She pulled the covers over both of them. Sasuke's hand found hers under the sheets, and his forehead leaned against her bare neck. He was hot with fever, but not as hot as it would be if it were harsh. It was going down, she realized. She wouldn't be catching the bug, she told herself and closed her eyes, enveloped in Sasuke's odd warmth.

"Thank you for making my birthday special, Sakura," Sasuke whispered so softly if they weren't in a quiet roomshe wouldn't have heard it.

"I love you, Sasuke-kun," she said.

"I love you, too." he said and both drifted off to sleep, on Sasuke's bed, on Sasuke's birthday.


End file.
